Why Volkswagen Unveiled Virtus Sedan In SUV-Loving India
Indian buyers lacked choice in the premium mid-sized sedan segment, says Ashish Gupta of Volkswagen.
For Volkswagen Group, sedans remain part of its 2.0 strategy for India where car buyers prefer SUVs.
Volkswagen Passenger Cars India has unveiled the Virtus mid-sized sedan. While the company will reveal the price in May, the model will compete with group sibling Skoda Slavia, besides Maruti Suzuki's Ciaz, Hyundai's Verna and Honda's City.
The German auto group launched the sedan when SUVs, mostly compacts that offer more room and a higher ground clearance, gained market share to 38% in 2021, according to Jato Dynamics. Over 22 new SUVs have been launched in India in the last three years.
“The SUV has been the body style of preference for customers,” Ashish Gupta, brand director at Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, told BloombergQuint in an interview. But the sedan model also has a connect with the Indian audience, he said.
“From an Indian perspective, the sedan body style is 12-14% of the entire market," he said. "And the premium mid-sizes sedan segment, where we are bringing the Virtus, has lacked option and choices for customers.”
The new launch complements the automaker's strategy of targeting 3% market share in India.
Ashish Gupta, brand director at Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, poses with the Virtus. (Source: VW)
Volkswagen's first product under 2.0 strategy was Taigun, an SUV launched in September last year. It has received 20,000 bookings so far.
Gupta expects the greater need for personal mobility as pandemic restrictions are lifted to drive demand for sedans and SUVs. “If you have two cars in a family, you would rather have two different body styles, and that is where the opportunity is.”
Coming Soon: VW EV Test Fleet
Volkswagen, one of the early adopters of battery vehicle technology globally, expects mass electrification in India to occur only in the second half of the decade. It's planning to bring a test fleet of electric vehicles to India this year.
“We will try it out to see what the challenges are, what needs to be changed, and then bring in limited volumes of (our) global portfolio of electric cars before we go into mass electrification.”
Watch the full interview here: